Protopalatial Pottery. Relative Chronology and Regional Differences in Middle Bronze Age Crete

This volume publishes the proceedings of an international workshop held at Pacheia Ammos hosted by the Institute of Aegean Prehistory (INSTAP) Study Center in East Crete in celebration of its first 25 years of operation. It presents the Protopalatial ceramic material from various sites of Minoan Crete to understand similarities and differences in the island's production, distribution, and pottery consumption. The numerous papers in the volume deal with excavated sites of North-Central, Eastern and Southern Crete, and some cases, they present the ceramic deposits from sites in these areas for the first time. The main goal of most papers is to contextualise well-stratified assemblages through the analysis of their ceramic typology, decorative variations, and technological aspects to understand the different phases of occupation in the Protopalatial period. The two-day workshop showed that the ceramic material from different sites, according to the nature of the assemblages, can be attributed to single phases or to transitional phases (MM IB-MM IIA, MM IIA-MM IIB) of the Protopalatial period, thus revealing that synchronisms between various sites of the island can be challenging. On the assumption that chronological distinctions were possible by comparing already published data, most authors tried to analyse the connections between different areas to understand intra- and inter-regional processes. Connections between nearby or distant sites reveal similar or variable production and consumption patterns dictated by geographic, cultural, and political parameters. From a ceramic perspective, a regional approach is still a valid tool, but it works only in areas where the ceramic traditions are well investigated and defined. Despite the challenges presented in discovering synchronisms (and asynchronisms) for the Protopalatial contexts of the entire island, this volume will be a reference for new studies of Protopalatial ceramics on Crete.